Pressure Treated Wood

[ajk1]

I am looking at a one year old wood fence enclosure around a diesel backup generator. The fence is comprised of 4x4 wood posts, 2x4 #2 spruce horizontals top and bottom and vertical wood slats fastened to the horizontals. The project manager for the fence is telling me that the contractor used pressure treated timber. I see no incision marks on any of the wood, not do I see any green colour which would be characteristic of wood pressure treated with copper naphthenate I believe.

I believe that although the majority of pressure treated timber is incised, there is some that is not. But the lack of green or gray colour seems to me to indicate that it was not pressure treated. It was just a normal wood colour. The whole thing was done on the cheap without drawings/specs as far as I know.

Is there a simple test that can be done that would prove whether or not it was pressure treated? Are the observations described above sufficient to prove that it is not pressure treated or treated wood? I suppose we could ask for the invoice for the wood proving that it was pressure treated.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Not sure what the recommended method is but couldn't you take a chunk of the exterior of the post and soak it in a few cups of water. This should leach out some copper. You could then use a pool and garden copper test kit to check for the presence of copper and compare against a control sample.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[XR250]

In our area, the wood is SYP, not incised and is hard to distinguish, colorwise, from regular, untreated, lumber.
Never see any Spruce, treated lumber before - but I guess that is locale dependent.
I imagine there are some testing labs that could help.

 

[dik]

I think that PWF (for wood foundations) treated material in this area is the only material that is incised. Other treated materials may be incised, but, not normally.

Dik

 

[ajk1]

Thanks for the responses.

This is in the Toronto area. I have certainly seen incised wood that was not necessarily intended for foundations. I suppose I should call the Canadian Wood Council and ask them.

To TehMightyEngineer - where is the copper test kit sold? At garden nurseries? Home Depot?

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I've seen some home water test kits at Home Depot but haven't used them. Fiance uses these test kits for the two freshwater fishtanks we have: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.amazon.com/API-65L-Copper-Test-Kit/dp/B0006JDWH8[/url] seems to be accurate enough to find copper leaching from pressure treated wood. Might be good to use distilled water and compare against a known sample of pressure treated wood.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[Klitor]

Sorry to barge in,but 'Project manager for the fence'?? Tempora...mores...

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Work history:
"Senior project engineering manager of boundary delineation and site security"

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[Brad805]

If the wood was treated with CCA I would expect it to be incised. Even 5/4 deck boards are treated this way. The difference with them is they go thru a planer to make them presentable for customers and round the edges.

I had a couple of scraps in my shop so I have attached a picture of a couple of fresh cuts. If it were painted (seems not), maybe they could hide the marks, but they would need to put on a few coats. There is no difference in the CCA treatment for PWF foundations.

In Ontario I believe the bluwood treatment is becoming more popular because it does not rely on the same chemicals. That would not have the incisions, but it would be blue if not painted. I do not have any experience with bluwood because our local stores only stock the CCA treated versions.

http://www.bluwoodcanada.com/protection.html

 

[ajk1]

To Brad805 - that is very helpful. I have specified Bluwood in the past but forgot about it. I could be wrong, but I thought CCA was banned because it is toxic to humans, but you are probably in a different geographic area.

To Klitor - to avoid a long story I just said project manager. Actually it is a religious institution where one person has volunteered to look after all the miscellaneous little items of varying nature that need to be attended to, to keep the facility running, etc.

 

[Brad805]

I will have to look at the stamps closer next time I pick up treated wood. I suppose it could be ACQ, but they still list CCA being available for PWF applications in the link below. PWF for foundations dropped off the map eons ago now.

http://cwc.ca/design-with-wood/durability/pressure-treated-wood/

 

[ajk1]

OK